The Role of Cultural Schemata In Reading Comprehension

Prior knowledge and cultural background greatly influence comprehension processes. Individuals may comprehend information better when they are culturally familiar with the information, that is, when they have the appropriate cultural schemata. This chapter examines how schemata are affected by culturally unfamiliar information. A brief discussion of schema theory is presented followed by prototypic examples of studies of cultural schemata. Methods of facilitating the acquisition and activation of cultural schemata are discussed. The ability of readers to comprehend culturally unfamiliar information can be enhanced by providing efficient ways of acquiring cultural schemata and ways of retrieving schemata when needed.